So Kirby used her athletic gifts to weave past two defenders and rifle a game-winning goal into the back of the cage with 2.6 seconds on clock.

Advertisement

That tally — Kirby’s second of the game — gave the eighth-seeded Big Red a dramatic 3-2 upset over top-seeded Allentown Tuesday afternoon and booked their place in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals.

They will face fifth-seeded Pennington in one semifinal Thursday at Mercer County Park.

“I knew I had to either pull it or kind of pop it up over her head,” Kirby explained on her game-winner. “There were definitely nerves, but I try not to think about it. When I play, I try to blank out and think, ‘alright, this is it.’ ... As soon as it hit the back (of the cage), I saw my teammates coming.”

Lawrenceville (7-5-1) is aiming for a MCT three-peat, but found itself as the No. 8 seed following a slow start to the season. Four of the Big Red’s losses have come against opposition with a combined 57-5-1 record.

That set up a quarterfinal game against the Redbirds that was played more like a final.

Mary Ellen McCarthy’s team came in undefeated and looking to avenge a semifinal loss to Lawrenceville a year ago.

Early on it looked good for the Redbirds (14-1) when Hope Narozniak knocked in a pass from Kayla Peterson — the CVC’s leading scorer who was otherwise held in check — giving Allentown a 1-0 lead 6:14 into the contest.

The Big Red tied it with 17:05 remaining in the half on a Morgan Pothast tally. The senior forward collected a pass from Jess Castelo and made a slick move around Redbirds goalie Hayley Peterson allowing herself to tap into an open net.

Allentown regained the advantage early in the second half when Erika McCormick was in the right place to push Maura McNutt’s centering pass over the line.

Of course Kirby had to get the equalizer for Lawrenceville.

With 22:06 left, Evie Bird sent a pass into a congested area that found the stick of Pothast who moved into the path Kirby.

“What gets (Kirby) excited is scoring,” said Big Red coach Lisa Ewanchyna. “She gets amped up when things are going her way and it kind of generates a lot of energy and feeds to other people. She’s a tremendous athlete. She’s a sick lacrosse player. And maybe field hockey is her second sport, but she comes out here and she’s an athlete.”

Lawrenceville almost won it with one minute remaining in regulation when Castelo slid between the Allentown defense on a breakaway, but Hayley Peterson came racing off her line to make a save.

Peterson (six saves) repeated that feat in overtime, this time denying Pothast while sending her flying through the air.

Big Red goalie Galen Ogg finished with 10 stops, including a nice double-save with seven minutes left on the clock to keep the game tied.

“I think Mary Ellen said at the end this was the craziest quarterfinal game,” Ewanchyna said. “I think it’s true. We were really evenly matched going into overtime. We just happened to score first. I’m not going to lie and say we dominated, they are a really strong team and we just happened to get the goal in on that sudden death.”

Even Kirby felt for the Allentown players, who had their dream of an undefeated season dashed by her stunning overtime dash.

“I feel bad for them because we kind of just wrecked their undefeated season,” Kirby said, before adding, “but on the other hand, we feel amazing because that was one of our huge goals (to get back to the county final). We just came here and left it all on the field.”

About the Author

Kyle Franko covers college and high school sports at the Trentonian. He is a Rutgers grad, avid football -- the European variety -- fan and part-time pick-up basketball player. Reach the author at kfranko@trentonian.com
.